Sailors object that descriptions of the sea are written entirely from the landsman's point of view, not the seaman's. To which it may be answered that if lands-men could view the sea otherwise. they would cease to be landsman. And this is specially true of men-of-war, in which every soul must be at one and the same time sailor, fighting man and expert in, some highly technical and complicated piece of machinery.
So it was with vivid, yet wholly undefined expectations, that one went on board 4H, M.S. Hawkins for one's first ortise in a man-of-war. The most pressing consideration was a mortal funk that one might disgrace oneself by being seasick. Even the who boast themselves good saiilers hav their off moments and we were to run a high speed trial. But this misgiving was mercifully disappointed. Even though there was a considerchle sea, the Hawkins is beautifully steady, a great. tribute to her designers, who of course, with a view to good shooting, put stability in the forefront of their aims.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.